Military

DATE=07/26/02

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=ISRAEL/PALESTINIANS (L)

NUMBER=2-292446

BYLINE=LARRY JAMES

DATELINE=JERUSALEM

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Israel has demolished three buildings, including a Palestinian police station, during an incursion into the Gaza Strip early Friday. Larry James has the latest in this report from Jerusalem.

TEXT: Israeli tanks and bulldozers rolled into the central Gaza Strip in the morning darkness. Accompanying troops engaged a number of Palestinian gunmen in a firefight, wounding two of them.

The Israeli military says they found several rockets in a search of two metal workshops, and destroyed them in a controlled explosion, before demolishing the buildings.

Meanwhile, an offshoot of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement is threatening to kill top Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

The threat was broadcast late Thursday on the television station of Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrilla group.

Also on the death list are Israeli military chief General Moshe Ya'alon, his predecessor Shaul Mofaz, and Avi Dichter, the head of Israel's Shin Bet security service.

Israel has been on high alert for Palestinian attacks, since an Israeli warplane bombed Gaza City late Monday, killing the commander of the military wing of the Palestinian group Hamas, along with 14 Palestinian civilians.

Hamas has vowed to avenge his death, and several other radical Palestinian groups also threatened that Israel's attack would not go unpunished.

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said the government is making every effort to ease tensions, following the Gaza City raid. He said he knows there has been a serious escalation of violence, and he fears that innocent people on both sides will suffer as a result.

And, the suicide bombing in Tel Aviv last week has claimed another victim. Israel radio reported Friday that 33-year-old Dimitri Pundokov died of the wounds he received in the July 18th attack, which killed three other foreign workers and an Israeli.

NEB/LDJ/TW